India Ink: Newswallah: Long Reads Edition

In Down to Earth, Alok Gupta analyzes the damaging effect violence has had on Bihar’s efforts to empower women and advance self-governance. The article argues that although the Bihar government announced a 50 percent quota for women in the panchayat (village council) in 2006, it has not helped in bringing about true empowerment for women. Instead, men force their homemaker wives to contest elections as the husbands continue to make all the decisions.

As sarpanchs (village council leaders) and mukhiyas (district leaders) have the power to approve development projects and administer social welfare programs, the posts are highly coveted. Often violence is used to discourage women from contesting elections. Mr. Gupta lists a number of incidents in which women standing for village council elections or their husbands were attacked, murdered and mutilated. In the three village council elections since 2006, 191 people were killed in Bihar before and during elections.

Rising violence along with continued gender discrimination have undermined the efficacy of the quota system for women in village council leadership. “In the past five years, the number of widowed mukhiyas and sarpanchs has spiraled, casting doubt if the Bihar government’s efforts to empower women were merely yet another political sop,” Mr. Gupta concludes.

In Tehelka, Kunal Majumder weighs in on last month’s events in Bangladesh, where young Muslim activists took to the streets of Dhaka protesting the Islamist political group Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh in an assertion of secularism and nationalism.

The protests were triggered on Feb. 5 when the War Crimes Tribunal, instituted by the government to try those accused of committing atrocities in Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971, handed down a life sentence to Abdul Kader Mollah, who was convicted of rape and mass murder. Many Bangladeshis had expected a death sentence for Mr. Mollah, who is often called the “Butcher of Mirpur” for slaughtering 344 people.

In response to the sentence, four bloggers in their 20s — Imran H. Sarkar, Mahmadul Haq Munshi, Maruf Rosul and Amit Bikram Tripura — organized a protest near the National Museum adjacent to Shahbag Square. Within days, students from other universities joined the protest, which grew exponentially. The protesters demanded the death sentence for the perpetrators of war crimes, a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, which are associated with the war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s liberation struggle, and a ban on enterprises controlled by the Jamaat.

Mr. Majumder compares the youth protesting at Shahbag Square to the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Pakistan, where young Muslim populations massed on the streets. However, the critical difference in Bangladesh, Mr. Majumder writes, is that the young Muslims’ demands were extremely un-Islamic.

“A young generation of Bangladeshis set out to recapture the legacy of their country’s birth and reclaim the narrative of 1971, taking ownership of an event that occurred well before this generation was born,” Mr. Majumder writes. “Young Muslims came out on the streets, angry and impassioned. They were not advocating or emerging as the vanguard for Islamism; they were opposing it.”

In Open, Rahul Pandita critiques the draft Jammu and Kashmir Police Bill 2013, which empowers local police and reduces police accountability. He notes that while the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Omar Abdullah, has often publicly denounced the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that grants armed forces impunity, the draft Kashmir Police Bill gives similar powers to the state police. The bill, which has already stirred controversy in the Kashmir Valley, allows police personnel to bypass the district magistrate in law-and-order disputes.

Other controversial parts of the act include allowing a police officer “not authorized by rank or jurisdiction” to keep a person in custody for six hours before a competent officer takes over and the authorization to create “village defense committees” and appoint civilians as special police officers.

While the chief minister has said that the bill will only be passed after it goes through the state cabinet and both legislative houses, Mr. Pandita argues that Mr. Abdullah’s inaction with regards to the bill has hurt himself by giving his opponents plenty of ammunition in this debate.

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Texas Monthly: Sign Language Interpreters Bring Live Music to the Deaf

On the last night of the 2012 Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, the sun set over a crowd of thousands who had stood for hours waiting to see Jack White, the headliner. A figure strode onto the stage, setting off a cascade of cheers.

But it was not Jack White, the singer-guitarist, it was Barbie Parker, the festival’s lead sign language interpreter.

Ms. Parker, a Texas native, and members of her Austin-based company, LotuSIGN, had interpreted more than 20 bands’ sets for deaf and hard of hearing festival attendees that weekend. As evidenced by the positive reception she received, her interpretations had won over a good part of the hearing audience as well.

At live music shows, Ms. Parker, 45, does not just sign lyrics — she communicates the entire musical experience. She mouths the words. She plays air guitar and air drums. She jams along with the bands.

“Music is such a large part of who I am,” she said. “I want to be able to open up that experience.”

Ms. Parker was bored in her accounting job and had two young children when she enrolled in her first formal American Sign Language class at San Antonio College about 20 years ago. She became fascinated with interpretation after reading a book about it at her local library and, in a chance encounter just hours after reading it, met the sister of a friend who happened to be an American Sign Language interpreter.

Ms. Parker is now an integral part of Austin’s deaf community. Her two adult sons are proficient in A.S.L., and her company has provided sign language interpretation at music festivals across the country for several years. Next week, she and other LotuSIGN interpreters will take the stage with artists at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin for the sixth year in a row.

The number of deaf and hard of hearing music fans taking advantage of interpretation at free shows held at Auditorium Shores as part of SXSW has risen noticeably in the past few years, Frank Schaefer, the officer manager for the festival, said in an e-mail. The increase can be attributed, at least in part, to a growing number of interpreters who specialize in that kind of work.

A good interpreter is adept at signing, but Ms. Parker also wants her team to impart the emotions and feelings music conveys. Lauren Kinast, 44, who lost her hearing gradually, attended a Rolling Stones concert signed by LotuSIGN interpreters. Ms. Kinast had listened to the Stones growing up, but when she saw Ms. Parker and a colleague interpret their music, she came away with a greater appreciation of the band.

“Everything made it different, better,” Ms. Kinast typed in an interview. “Having the songs interpreted in my language, understanding the emotions behind it, the meaning behind it, and being a part of the concert experience just took my love for them several notches up.”

Ms. Parker first gained recognition in the mid-2000s for interpreting music at the funeral of the parent of a well-known member of the deaf community in Austin. At one point during the service, she needed to sign an emotional musical performance.

“The singer got inspired, so the interpreting had to get inspired,” Ms. Parker said. The signing seemed to further stir the singer, which further moved Ms. Parker. “There was a kind of reverb,” she said. “The deaf audience was just — I just saw these jaws drop open like, ‘Oh, that’s what it’s like.’ ”

After that, she began receiving requests to interpret at weddings, children’s recitals and, of course, live shows. In 2007, she started her own company, Alive Performance Interpreting, which in 2009 became LotuSIGN.

“They’re five-star interpreters,” said Stacy Landry, the program manager for the local government’s deaf and hard of hearing services in Travis County. (Ms. Parker has obvious clout in the field — her traditional interpreting services were used in January when she intepreted President Obama’s Inaugural Address in Washington.)

LotuSIGN interpreters specialize in analyzing lyrics for the artist’s intent in a song. But sign language interpretation, no matter where it takes place, is about more than translating words into gestures and signs. The interpreter must communicate an overall experience by expressing the speaker’s tone, the meaning behind phrases and idioms, and even if someone’s cellphone interrupts an otherwise-silent lecture hall.

One year, Ms. Parker interpreted at a Sheryl Crow concert held to celebrate of one of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France titles. He was asked to take over on the drums for one of Ms. Crow’s songs.

“Well,” Ms. Parker said, “he wasn’t any good.”

Ms. Parker let the discomfort show on her face as she imitated Mr. Armstrong’s uneven drumming. She nodded subtly to assure perplexed members of the deaf audience that she was indeed doing this on purpose.

As the audience reacted, Ms. Parker saw a deaf man elbow the hearing man next to him and cringe. The hearing man nodded and made a similar pained face.

“They had this shared experience,” Ms. Parker said. The deaf man was truly part of the crowd.

LotuSIGN is working to mentor others in the hope of expanding access to live events. “You can’t do it without a lot of experience,” Ms. Parker said. “It is the hardest work I have ever done.”

Kathryn Jepsen is the deputy editor of Symmetry magazine.

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In Filing, Casino Operator Admits Likely Violation of an Antibribery Law

 In its annual regulatory report published by the commission on Friday, the Sands reported that its audit committee and independent accountants had determined that “there were likely violations of the books and records and internal controls provisions” of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

 The disclosure comes amid an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the company’s business activities in China.

 It is the company’s first public acknowledgment of possible wrongdoing. Ron Reese, a spokesman for the Sands, declined to comment further.

The company’s activities in mainland China, including an attempt to set up a trade center in Beijing and create a sponsored basketball team, as well as tens of millions of dollars in payments the Sands made through a Chinese intermediary, had become a focus of the federal investigation, according to reporting by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal in August.

 In its filing, the Sands said that it did not believe the findings would have material impact on its financial statements, or that they warranted revisions in its past statements. The company said that it was too early to determine whether the investigation would result in any losses. “The company is cooperating with all investigations,” the statement said.

 The Sands’ activities in China came under the scrutiny of federal investigators after 2010, when Steven C. Jacobs, the former president of the company’s operations in Macau, filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit in which he charged that he had been pressured to exercise improper leverage against government officials. He also accused the company of turning a blind eye toward Chinese organized crime figures operating in its casinos.

 Mr. Adelson began his push into China over a decade ago, after the authorities began offering a limited number of gambling licenses in Macau, a semiautonomous archipelago in the Pearl River Delta that is the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal.

 But as with many lucrative business spheres in China, the gambling industry on Macau is laced with corruption. Companies must rely on the good will of Chinese officials to secure licenses and contracts. Officials control even the flow of visitors, many of whom come on government-run junkets from the mainland.

 As he maneuvered to enter Macau’s gambling market, Mr. Adelson, who is well known in the United States for his financial and political clout, became enmeshed in often intertwining political and business dealings. At one point he reportedly intervened on behalf of the Chinese government to help stall a House resolution condemning the country’s bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics on the basis of its human rights record.

 In 2004, he opened his first casino there, the Sands Macau, the enclave’s first foreign owned gambling establishment. This was followed by his $2.4 billion Venetian in 2007.

 Some Sands subsidiaries have also come under investigation by Chinese authorities for violations that included using money for business purposes not reported to the authorities, resulting in fines of over a million dollars.

 Success in Macau has made Mr. Adelson, 78, one of the richest people in the world. He and his wife, Miriam, own 53.2 percent of Las Vegas Sands, the world’s biggest casino company by market value. Last year, Forbes estimated his fortune at $24.9 billion.

 Mr. Adelson became the biggest single donor in political history during the 2012 presidential election, giving more than $60 million to eight Republican candidates, including Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, through “super PACs.” He presides over a global empire of casinos, hotels and convention centers.

Michael Luo and Thomas Gaffney contributed reporting.

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